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Saudi's drift on public roads like this with people lining the streets.

Saudi drifter sentenced to beheading for deadly crash

September 10, 2012

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In Western countries, even the most heinous of automobile accidents can be settled in court with a long jail sentence. In the Middle East, penalties can be a bit harsher.

A Saudi Arabian man who killed two men near the capital of Riyadh while drifting—hagwalah, as they call it—is sentenced to be publicly beheaded for the incident. The driver also fled the scene before police arrived.

In court records, the man is known as Mutannish, meaning “he who ignores.”

Authorities in Saudi Arabia treat drifting deaths as negligent homicides, which leads to the extreme penalty. In 2005, a naval officer in the country was found guilty of killing three minors in a negligent stunt-driving accident. His death sentence was reduced to 3,000 lashes and 20 years in prison.

According to Amnesty International, at least 82 people were executed in Saudi Arabia last year, many by public beheading.

Here is an extremely graphic example of Saudi drifting gone wrong, this is not the video of the crash in question.